Last updated on July 17th, 2023 at 06:51 pm
Ted Cruz wants to curtail rights based on imaginary stuff in his Bible. At the end of February, Cruz even appointed a “religious liberty advisory council” composed of some of the biggest haters out there to help him single out those who don’t deserve liberty; Donald Trump on the other hand, says – and has proven – that you don’t need the Bible to take away liberties.
There isn’t a lot to choose between them. As Trump says, Cruz puts down his Bible and lies, but Trump doesn’t bother with a Bible and goes right to the lies. Surprisingly, Evangelicals seem to like Trump’s approach by appealing to their bigotries. They’ve proven they’re willing to set their Bibles down for a minute for an opportunity to indulge in hate of the constructed other, from blacks to Mexicans to Muslims and others.
And women.
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Cruz’s so-called “religious liberty advisory council” recommends, as part of a list of 15 items, that he “Direct the Department of Health and Human Services to eliminate its requirement that all employers include coverage for all FDA-approved contraceptive methods and sterilization procedures.”
The Republican War on Women has been in full force for years now, with women’s reproductive rights on attack at both the state and national level. But though Donald Trump is a misogynist and as Sarah Jones said here yesterday, his contempt for women has made him a frontrunner, Ted Cruz has given the war on women pride of place in his platform.
Cruz has planned for himself a big Day One at the White House, and it matters less how feasible his plan is than what his plan says about the course his administration would follow: total war on all the enemies the Religious Right has identified over the decades since it’s inception in the wake of Goldwater’s 1964 defeat.
“If I am elected president, let me tell you about my first day in office,†he said at the Fox News debate on August 6.
“The first thing I intend to do is to rescind every illegal and unconstitutional executive action taken by Barack Obama.
“The next thing I intend to do is instruct the Department of Justice to open an investigation into these videos and to prosecute Planned Parenthood for any criminal violations.â€
The second item on his list is, however, problematic from a legal standpoint. Presidents don’t get to order investigations. As has been pointed out, this is what got Nixon into trouble. The president can’t order; he can only ask.
But Cruz has already proven he doesn’t understand how the Supreme Court works (or even that the Constitution mandates it), let alone how the Senate in which he serves functions. We shouldn’t expect him to understand details related to the executive branch.
So what Cruz plans to do as president is to break the law to undo what he says are instances of President Obama breaking the law. He promises us a reign of lawlessness and immorality that will attack all Americans who don’t subscribe to his extreme and very narrow view of Christianity.
He promises, in other words, a religious reign of terror.
Cruz will run into similar problems in his quest to get rid of Common Core, since neither the federal government in general nor the Department of Education in particular have anything to do with whether Common Core is taught or not.
But hey, ignorant voters love to hear ignorant things from their candidates. It works for Trump, so why not for Cruz? Simple solutions to fake problems is the Republican credo.
Some of the things he says we can just laugh at, because they expose to all his very childish understanding of how things work. But our laughter should not lead us to think he is not dangerous, and that the things he promises to do will not harm millions of people.
Republicans pretend we live in a post-racist society while they prosecute their war on black Americans. Likewise, they pretend there is no inequality between men and women as they support paying women less and proposing that based on their religious beliefs that a bunch of men should get to decide what is best for women where their reproductive health is concerned.
Fox News’ Todd Starnes on Thursday called Cruz’s religious liberty advisory council “a faith-based Justice League.” He says that, “if Cruz follows their suggestions, American Christians will be able to sleep soundly at night.”
Unfortunately, they’re the only ones who will be able to sleep at night.
These are not laughing matters. These are attacks on American liberties based on a false understanding of a book Cruz and most of his cronies don’t even read, let alone understand. Ted Cruz says his Bible gives him the right to do anything he wants, and that is pretty much what he has promised to do.
And he is looking right at your wives, your mothers, your sisters and your daughters when he says it.
Hrafnkell Haraldsson, a social liberal with leanings toward centrist politics has degrees in history and philosophy. His interests include, besides history and philosophy, human rights issues, freedom of choice, religion, and the precarious dichotomy of freedom of speech and intolerance. He brings a slightly different perspective to his writing, being that he is neither a follower of an Abrahamic faith nor an atheist but a polytheist, a modern-day Heathen who follows the customs and traditions of his Norse ancestors. He maintains his own blog, A Heathen’s Day, which deals with Heathen and Pagan matters, and Mos Maiorum Foundation www.mosmaiorum.org, dedicated to ethnic religion. He has also contributed to NewsJunkiePost, GodsOwnParty and Pagan+Politics.
